In a message dated 5/15/98 11:19:10 AM PST, stecz@pswtech.com writes:
<< I'm not so sure... I have a very stock '75 (55k miles and all emmisions
equipment, so someone hasn't messed with it much)... anyway. I don't have an
oil cooler and the attachment points appear to have never had one installed
and the holes (the the oil lines run through) in the shroud around the
radiator have rubber plugs in them. (indicating that either it's never been
there, or someone went to a lot of trouble to remove it and make it look
factory.) also, the oil line(from filter) looks OEM (it's not just rubber,
it has a fabric outside) >>
John, you are correct - the later cars did not have coolers (but should have).
I have a tendency to consider only the 'real' MGBs, ie the twin carb models,
when I write. The later cars were so gutted and far from the original idea,
both in styling (which is of course a personal judgement) and the pitiful
performance ( which is indisputable) and ride height that I admit a tendency
to ignore them, which I know is not fair when many people own and enjoy them,
either because they can't afford better/earlier or because they really prefer
them, perhaps for the styling.
When they continued to build the B after 1974/75, they made many many
compromises, including the fitting of a basically stock Morris Marina engine
(thank God they didn't use the weaker Triumph based gearbox as they did on the
Marina), removal of the oil cooler (as it made only about 2/3 of the presmog
power, they likely thought they could get away with it), and the raising of
the whole car to meet bumper height requirements, perhaps the unkindest cut
for a car that had always been valued for it's tight handling.
Please note that only the Federalized single carb cars took the big
performance hit, although the home market cars still had to put up with a
couple of hundred pounds of various garbage hung off them together with the
awkward handling, which I grant you was partially corrected with the fitment
of a rear sway bar in 1976.
So no offence to the RB Bs out there, but if I inadvertantly neglect them in
any future posts, that will likely be why.
Bill
PS - just so you don't think that I believe it was all bad, the electrical
system and, to some people anyway, the all synch trans were improvements over
the original spec.
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